Stan Culture: From a Song to Reality
A dedicated fan-base is what helps solidify an artist, as they say; “you’re nobody without your fans”; from the Bobby Soxers with Frank Sintra to all the fans from Beatlemania, an immersed fan base has been a thing for around for decades. However, as we delved into the 2010s, with the help of the greatly increasing social media a new type of fan base emerged to be more prominent “the stans”. We hear the term thrown around often, hell you’ve probably called your friend, who constantly tells to listen to J.Cole even though every attempt you do still does nothing for you, a Stan.
In 2020, it may be common now to use it, but it’s hard to digest the fact some people don’t even know where it originated from. For context, In 2000, arguably the biggest rapper named Eminem released his 2000 follow up, The Marshall Mathers LP, regarded as one of the best albums of all time (and dissected from front to back of the linear notes that writing more about it is a bit redundant) and on that project had the track “Stan” featuring UK singer Dido. Sampling Dido’s song “Thank You”, (!!!!!!! SPOILER ALERT FOR A 20 YEAR SONG!!!!!!!) Stan is about an extremely obsessed fan of Eminem named…well…you guessed it…no not Devon Sawa, but Stan. Who constantly writes letters to Eminem hoping and expecting for a response back from back but never gets and is obsession rushes past the boiling point to where he puts his pregnant girlfriend in the trunk and records tape message to send to him, but yet he drives off a bridge and killing them both, for Eminem to finally to get around to writing back Stan to find out later that it was Stan he had read about who had killed himself and his girlfriend. While the song remains a classic, the song has grown two legs to walk on its own and it’s become a term so popular that it has been added to Merriam dictionary defined as: “an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan”.
20 years later, however, in the digital age, we are witnessing Stan culture more transparently. Sure we haven’t seen anything to the degree of the song but it’s not that we haven’t seen people go too far. With social media, many Stan bases have become infamous, with certain groups gaining their stigma. Nicki Minaj Stans (aka the Barbs) has gotten a reputation of truly going out there way and defend by any means necessary, the phrase “Protect_____ at all cost” is essentially their motto. One particular incident demonstrates the Barbs at their strongest. In 2018, Nicki and writer Wanna Thompson got into a twitter altercation, after Wanna tweeted: “You know how dope it’d be if Nicki put out mature content”, Overall pointing out the lack diverse topics from Nicki especially since we as fans know she has been through a lot, in positive and negative ways. Soon to follow, the Barbs began to attack. Wanna began to receive countless messages of slander and vicious threats including sending a picture of Wannas child. In an interview, Wanna stated: “it was physically draining and mentally depleted”. Losing an internship and putting her career in jeopardy, eventually receiving allegedly from Nicki herself, though Wanna never revealed the message. Wanna tweeted: “If I just posted the DM I got, I will lose A LOT. I want a career in writing & who will hire me after this? But this DM is disgusting”. A piece by the New York Times goes more in-depth over this situation.
Beyonce and the “Bey-hive” had somewhat of a similar incident. In 2019, after, the Bey-hive went on the wife of Warrior Owner Nicole Currans page after attacked her after a video of her and Jay seemed to be having a convo while Beyonce is sitting in between them with a face of displeasure. After the video went viral, Beyonce fans went on Nicole’s Instagram page to slander her (and yes death threats were thrown at her as well) to the extent of where she deactivated her account. Beyonce’s publicist would release a statement saying: “It will bring us joy to the person you love so much it didn’t spew hate in her name”. Toxicity has become highly associated with Stan bases of many artists. Not surprisingly, it detracts people from entering fanbases or attempting to listen to the music of a particular artist. While understandable, that should never dissuade you from discovering music you’d probably enjoy, due to the acts of some individuals. People may go to the extreme, but, shouldn’t represent the entire bunch. Stans aren’t always necessarily this blunt, sometimes they just blind to criticism and let their fandom control their judgment with no objectivity. While when it comes to the music, that’s subjective, no matter how objective we can be, we can never tell someone what’s good or bad if they enjoy it because you know……opinions exist.
Case in point, Kanye Stans. Referring to his antics and personality more so than his music because whether they like his projects that the majority may believe is mediocre, again, subjective so I can’t comment. However, Kanye Stans seem may take the stance of Art & Artist separation or if not seem to give him a pass for no matter what he does and convey that he has a more grand intention and signification of his actions. Hell, they have become so infamous for this, The Root published an article called: “How to Talk to Kanye Stans” and in it gives tips on how to deal with Kanye stans (sure it may be a bit of comical article), while breaking why Kanye stans, in particular, can make you irritable saying:” Kanye stans tend to lack the proper perspective…..Because of this lack of perspective, Kanye stans can be just as insufferable as their luminescent leader….” Which in hindsight can summarize every stan base? But as we finish the lap, their’s nothing wrong with being a fan, or even a super fan as long as you keep it in perspective and don’t romanticize and never let your fandom cloud your judgment. In the end, no one is perfect even, our favorite artists……………except OutKast.
